Russia has returned the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers under an agreement reached in negotiations between the two sides, Moscow’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said Thursday.
In return, Moscow had received the bodies of 19 Russian fighters, he said.
"May they rest in peace in their native soil," Medinsky wrote on Telegram. The Ukrainian side confirmed the return of 1,000 soldiers' bodies.
In May and June, bilateral negotiations took place between Russians and Ukrainians for the first time in three years. The talks in Istanbul were aimed at finding a pathway towards ending Russia's war on Ukraine.
The two sides were able to agree on a large exchange of prisoners of war and the return of soldiers' bodies. Both sides also submitted their lists of demands for ending the war. But their positions remain far apart.
The repatriation of bodies has developed into a political issue. Moscow had handed over 6,000 bodies ahead of Thursday's exchange and offered a further 2,000.
According to Medinsky, Ukraine has transferred fewer than 100 fallen soldiers, however. Moscow views this as an indication that Ukraine is experiencing significantly more casualties at the front than Russia.
Kyiv later said that Moscow had mixed Russian soldiers' bodies among the fallen returned to Ukraine.
Experts explain the discrepancy by noting that Russian troops are advancing and thus able to retrieve their own fallen.
